Biography

Unver Shafi Khan set up his studio in Karachi in 1984 after returning from Kenyon College, USA with a BA in English Literature. His first solo show, in 1986, was at the Indus Gallery run by the iconic Ali Imam. This came about because of a meeting at the gallery with the late Dr Akbar Naqvi, F.N. Souza and Ali Imam. At that time, Unver met sporadically with Amin Gulgee, Durriya Kazi, Huma Bhaba, Naiza Khan, Elizabeth and Iftikhar Dadi, David Alesworth and Moeen Faruqi, as well as with Ardy Cowasjee, who opened the short-lived but influential Ziggurat Gallery in Karachi. It was in these early years that the artist also befriended the late Zahoor ul Alkhlaq, who stayed with him and worked in his studio towards his first show at Ziggurat. And the rest, Unver says, “is history.”